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The Confederate Soldier. 



AN ADDRESS 

DELIVERED AT THE WRITTEN REQUEST OF 

5,000 EX-UNION SOLDIERS, 

AT 

STEmWAY HALL, NEW YORK CITY, 
Friday Evening, May 3d, 1878, 

FOR THE 

Benefit of the 47th N. Y. Veteran Volunteers, 

(Miles O'Reilly's Regiment,) 

BY 

HON. ALFRED M. WADDELL, M. C, 

OF NORTH CAROLINA. 



WASHINGTON : 

JOSEPH L. PEARSON, PRINTER, 

Cor. 9th and D streets. 

1878. 



■vh ^ 



^'-P.C 



CORRESPONDENCE 



" Hon. a. M. Waddell, &c., &v., &c. 

" The undersigned ex-Union Soldiers, a vast majority of wlioni belong 
to the Grand Army ol" the Kei)ul)lic, resiiectlnlly request you to deliver 
your leeture, '' The Confederate Soldier," for the benefit of the Veteran 
Corps of the 47th NeAv York Veteran Volunteers, (Private Miles O'Reilly's 
regiment,) in New York (Jity, at an early day. Many of us, knowing that 
you served with distinction in the army of the late Confederate States, have 
watched your course in Congress, as the representative of the 3d North 
Carolina district, during the past seA'en years, and are aware of the liberal 
spirit you have exhibited iu voting at all times for pensions to Union 
soldiers ; many of us know the pac-ific, conservative tone of your speeches 
on public measures likely to re-awaken sectional bitterness — arguments 
delivered in the interest of a common, united country ; and all of us 
would bi' happy to meet you face to face. We promise that a generous, 
soldierly welcome awaits you ; for we need scarcely say, that, no matter 
on which side of the line during the late strife a man served, having 
served and linowjng what it means, he is readiest to listen to one who has 
shown himself by his public acts, as you have repeatedly done, to have 
been an honorable, generous foe." 



6^ 



Extract from Col. "Waddell's Kepey. 

" I accept with unfeigned satisfaction, though with manj^ misgivings 
as to my ability to discliarge the duty imposed u])on me worthily. If 
anything I may say shall tend to strengthen the bonds of union between 
the people of the North and South, and to renew the spirit which ani- 
mated our forefathers, my highest hope will ))e realized." 



THE CONFEDERATE SOLDIER. 



Soldiers of the Union— my Friends and (countrymen : 

The man who could without misgivings occupy the posi- 
tion assigned me this evening would he indeed uneuviahle. 
I frankly confess that this is to me one of the most trying, as 
it is one of the most gratifying, occasions in my experience. 
In attempting to respond to the invitation with which you 
have so higlily honored me, my aim will be to reflect in 
some degree the spirit which prompted it — -the soldier-spirit 
of courage, magnaminit}^ and patriotism. I shall speak to 
you truthfully and (as far as human infirmity will admit) 
impartially of that portion of your countrymen wdio were 
your fearless enemies in war and are your sincere friends 
in peace. You asked me to select as my theme this even- 
ing " The Confederate Soldier," and the deed was as manly 
and generous in you as it was acceptai)le to me and to all those 
who once bore that name. Be assured that it has for them, 
as it should have for others, a significance which could 
never attach to any ordinary invitation. It is welcomed as 
a good omen of better days to come, as the dawning of a 
new era which can no longer be postponed. It is accepted 
as the crowning evidence of a real, sincere determination 
on the part of those who fought for national unity to oblit- 
erate ever}^ vestige of sectional feeling, and henceforward 
to co-operate in a spirit of generous patriotism with their 
Southern fellow-citizens in the advancement of their com- 
mon country to that position among the nations of the 
earth to wliich natural causes aud free institutions alike 
assign her. Now and then, but less and less frequently, 
demagogues, for sinister purposes, make spasmodic ettorts 
to rekindle the dviuo- embers of our late (*onfla2:ration, but 



public sentiment condemns all sucli ctibrts, and they will 
soon cease altogether. Your invitation, and my presence 
here this evening in answer to it, furnish the strongest proof 
that the capital for that trade is exhausted. It has been 
carried on, on both sides, principally by men who, whatever 
else they may have shed, did not spill an alarming quan- 
tity of blood during the war, and are not recognized by 
their countrymen as heroes of the civil strife ; but who il- 
lustrate the prophetic witticism of Gen. Scott, that after the 
fighting was all over, the great difhculty would be in rec- 
onciling the non-combatants. Let them continue to afford 
us amusement now, as they excited our contempt then. 
The Union will probably survive it if the political career of 
the word}' warriors does not. 

In extending the invitation with which you have hon- 
ored me you were so kind as to allude to my course in Con- 
gress with commendation, especially in regard to questions 
affecting the interests of the pensioners of the governiDcnt. 
It is a source of gratification to me to know that not only 
myself but every other. ex-Confederate member of Con- 
gress has always and invariably voted for any and every 
kind of pension to the gallant men who fought against us. 
and to their widows and children. If there has ever been 
an exception to this rule I am not aware of it, and this has 
been done from no spirit of obsequiousness but from a sense 
of duty. If the same could be said of all your Senators and 
Kepresentatives, the disabled soldiers and sailors of the 
Union and their widows and orphans would be in better 
condition than they are. The people who lost are willing 
to pay their part of the tax for this purpose, and those who 
won ought to be. if they are not. 

The Confederate Soldier 

and the male citizen of the Confederate States were nearly 
absolutely synonymous terms. In no other country, with 
such a population and territory, was there ever such an ap- 
proximation to universal soldierhood as was exhibited there. 



y*o other government was ever charged with " rol)bing the 
cradle and the grave " to recruit its meUing armies. In 
the good old conservative state in which I live — and which 
was so averse to the conflict before it was begun — the 
number of soldiers exceeded the number of voters by six 
thousand, a fact which, I believe, is without a parallel. 

From the first fight at Bethel to the last one at Benton- 
ville she was in the front line all the time, and her list of 
killed exceeds that of any other state on either side, and 
this was a state that voted down secession by a decided ma- 
jority. All this was, and with some of the Northern people, 
perhaps, is, still a mystery. The question has been asked a 
thousand times iiow it could have happened that a people 
who were so much attached to the Union and so over- 
whelmingly opposed to secession in March, 1861, should in 
May following have been enthusiastic in their determina- 
tion to resist to the last extremity the power of the Federal 
Government ? The answer to this question is very simple, 
and contains the whole philosophy of the Confederate strug- 
gle. It is this : while the people differed as to the abstract 
right of a state to withdraw from the Union — a lai'ge ma- 
jority doubting if not denying such right— and while they 
loved the Union to which their fixthers had contributed so 
much, they were almost unanimous in the conviction that 
if a state did secede the other states had no right to use 
armed force to hold her, and that the first duty of a citizen 
in such a case was to his own state. This had been the 
political education of men of all parties. Holding these 
convictions as to the people of other states, they of course 
applied them to their own, and as in addition to their con- 
victions, their interests were all on one side, they did not 
hesitate, when the issue was made, to take their position. 
And hence the Confederate soldier. 

There have been, and still are, very erroneous ideas 
as to the motives which influenced these men to take up 
arms. Among them was the notion that they were at 
heart opposed to the form of government under wliich 



they liv^od and loiigcd for u more aristocratic form. 
The best answer to this is to bo found in tbe fact tbat tbey 
adopted the Constitntioii of tbe United States almost ver- 
hatim, only incorporating into it a clearer statement of tbe 
relative rigbts of tbe states and tbe general government, 
and fixing tbe term of tbe Executive at six years and declai- 
ino- bis ineli«:ibilitv to a second term. A more common, 
but equally erroneous, idea was tbat tbey were inspired 
l)v a fanatical love of tbe institution of slavery, and were 
determined to risk evci-ytbing, their lives and fortunes, to 
perpetuate it, and great stress was laid upon tbe utterance 
atti'ibutod to a distinguished Georgian, l)ut wbicb was a 
gross misrepresentation, tbat tbe new government was to 
be founded upon slavery as its corner-stone. Yet only a 
small portion of tbe people of tbe Soutb owned slaves, and 
I assert bere now, as a fact wbicb no Soutbern man will 
deny, tbat not one man in one hundred living there at that 
time, and perhaps not one in a thousand, would have sbed 
one drop of bis blood simply to save tbat institution. 

I bonestly bebeve (and I base my judgment upon bis- 
torical facts as well as personal observation) tbat but for 
tlie contimious agitation of tbat question for years previous 
to tbe war, gradual emancipation under tbe pressure of 
[>ublic opinion in tbe South alone would bave been inevi- 
tal)le. A pi'ivate soldier, wbo was a gentleman of c(hica- 
tion, assured me during the Avar tbat bis association with 
his comrades satisfied bim that, if tbe conflict terminated 
successfully for tbe Confederacy, the rank and file of the 
army would demand tbe al)olition of slavery in some way. 
because tbey believed it would be an everlasting source of 
trouble, as it bad been tbrougbout tbe bistory of the 
country, and be fully sympathized witb tbe sentiment. 
He may bave been in eri'or, but believed what be said. 

Many of you will be lotb to believe tbis, perhaps, because 
tbe aversion wbicb you, in common (it nnist be confessed) 
with the civilized w^orld, entertained toward tbe institution, 
w<Mild exclude from your minds tbe possibility of such 



action on the part of the Southern people. I do not know 
tluxt it would add anything to the force of this assertion on 
my part to state a fact in my own experience ; but, accept- 
ing me as a fair representative of the people there — as one 
whose ancestors were among the first settlers — let me say 
that when the war was pending, I gave serious offence lo a 
friend who was a large slaveholder, by declaring that 
rather than see a dissolution of the Union and civil war, I 
would be willing to see the total abolition of slavery, not 
by an unconstitutional act of the general government, but by 
the Southern peo[)le themselves. Do not misunderstand 
me. 

I was " a good old rebel," and would despise myself if I 
ever denied or apologized for it before a Xorthern audi- 
ence. I am only illustrating a sentiment which prevailed 
to a large extent in my state at that time, and endeavoring 
to prove to you that slavery was not what the people of the 
South fought for. I recollect very well that one eccentric 
old gentleman, who was very much depressed by the turn 
which events had taken, gravely informed me in the spring 
of 1861, in a discussion as to the causes of the war, that, in 
his opinion, if the ti'uth should ever be known, a ivomaii 
would be found at the l)oftom of the trouble, for, he said, 
every great struggle, from the siege of Troy to the present 
day, had oi'iginated from that cause. The old gentleman 
may have Ijeen wrong, but whether one of the sex set the 
])all in motion or not, it is very certain that they kept it 
rollins: riii-ht lively after it started. 

No, my friends, the Confederate soldier did not leave his 
fireside, and those who were dear as life to him, to go out 
and fight for four long, weary, terrible years, for any of 
these things. 

He fought, strange as it may sound to some ears, for 
exactly what you fought for — love of country and constitu- 
tional liberty. You lielieved that patriotism and duty de- 
manded that you should sacrifice the comforts of home and 
your private interests, and undergo all the hardships and 



6 

perils of bloody war, in order to preserve the .Union of the 
States and the liberties of the people. 

He enthusiastically advanced to meet you, fully con- 
vinced that he was dofendino- his home ac^ainst an in- 
vader, who was bent upon his subjugation and degrada- 
tion. He was just as sincere and hcmest as you were, and 
at the bar of (conscience, and before the Righteous Judge, 
at whose tribunal we must all appear, he will stand ac- 
quitted of any offence in this respect. 

How he fought during those four years ai' horror you may 
be the judges. How he sutfered, through what privations 
he passed, how naked and hungry he went — ^with lacerated 
feet, but lion heart — from battlefield to battlelield of that 
stricken laud, none but God and his comrades will ever 
know. 

You overthrew him, and returned, amid the acclamations 
of rejoicing millions, to happy and prosperous homes. He 
went back through a wilderness, to find a solitary chimney 
where his cabin stood, and to kiss his rao-o;ed children, who 
cried for bread. Your homeward march was along a path 
strewed with garlands, and gladdened with songs of tri- 
umph ; his was trod silently through a land of tears. In 
that memorable spring-time impartial Nature greeted your 
coming with her wealth of blooming laurels on a thousand 
Northern hillsides, and welcomed his returning with the 
waving of her cypress and the sighing of her pines. You 
found awaiting you a gi'ateful nation, overflowing with 
riches, and proudly conscious of its power. He returned, 
ragged and penniless, to a ruined country ; but, mark you, 
he did not complain. He expected the consequence of fail- 
ure, and when it came he looked it in the face, as he did 
every other danger or calamity during the war, and ac- 
cepted it like a man. 

I never heard the Confederate soldier ivhine over his fate. 
Profanity may sometimes have disturbed the atmosphere a 
little, but it was never made sickening by any such infusion 
as that. The o-rand words of Robt. E. Lee to the surren- 



dered remnant of his splendid army, •' Human virtue should 
l)e e(|ual to human ealamit}^" touched the heart of the 
Southern people, and as the blast of a Bessemer furnace 
transforms the sjftcned metal, steeled it against adversity. 
They went to work with the same spirit which animated 
them during the war, exhibiting a recuperative power at 
which you were amazed, and their country, then utterly 
desolate, smiled again with bounteous harvests, and despite 
every obstacle, has stea<lil3" advanced towards prosperity 
and power. In this material development of that portion 
of your country, I know you liave rejoiced, and many are 
the hard-fisted ex-Confederates who have been cheered and 
assisted by their former enemies in their struggle with ad- 
verse fortune since the war. 

A recent instance of it is given in a Xorth Carolina 
newspaper, as follows : 

The Blue and the Gray — A Timely Cup of Water. — 
Daring the war our townsman, Jas. R. Moore, on one occa- 
sion went out in front of our lines to give some water to a 
wounded Yankee, who was lying in a helpless condition upon 
the ground but lately occupied by the Federal forces, and 
from which they had recently been driven. The man was cry- 
ing piteously for water, and the bullets were rattling around 
from both armies. Moore said he intended to risk the ex- 
posure to do a deed of mercy, and went out to him. It 
proved to be a captain of a Pennsylvania regiment, who 
was profuse with thanks, and otiered Moore his gold watch, 
which the gallant Confederate declined. He begged for 
his name that he might, if he survived the war, remember 
him. This he wrote down in his memorandum book. The 
captain recently wrote here to know if Moore was living — 
said he was rich, but dying of consumption, and wanted to 
provide for Moore in his will. Mr. Moore wrote to him 
and received a friendly letter in reply, telling him there 
was $10,000 set apart for his use, to he paid in instalments 
of $2,000 each. The Federal officer has since died, and 
the other day the first payment of $2,000 was received. 
Truly 'tis "good to give even a cup of cold water in the 
right spirit." — -{Mon/aidon {N. C.) correspondence.) 

They were and are your coimtrymen, and the title to 
which each can lay claim witli highest pride is, " I was an 



8 

American soldier." There is not a living; soldier to-day 
among them who does not smile at the recollection of the 
names by whit-h we designated each other. " We uns " 
used to call "you nns" "Yanks" and "Blue-bellies," 
and "you uns" used to call us " Rebs," and "Johnnies," 
and "Grey-backs." There was no malice, no bitterness, 
between the boys aftei" they got ac(|uainted with eacli othei- 
by the intercliango of sliot and shell, and this argument 
between them was common : " Wii\' in thunder don't you 
let us alone and go back home?" " What did you fire on 
the flag for?" and "Why don't you come back and bo- 
have yourselves ? " I never heard a Union soldier call a 
Confederate soldier a traitor. That epithet was reserved 
for the exclusive use of a different class of patriots, whose 
sole ammunition during the conflict was the vocabulary, 
and who never fired even that except at long range. 

The time has come when we can talk over these things 
as matters of history. You know, as I do, that if the set- 
tlement of the (]uestions resulting from the war had been 
left to the fighting men of both sides they would have been 
very speedily adjusted ; ])ut so-called staiesmansldi), which 
lias been a chronic disease in our body politic, broke out like 
the measles all over the country and kept it in a state of 
constant irritation for soine years. 

It is a complaint which has been principally confined 
to gentlemen who, from 1861 to 18G5, were absorbed in 
other pursuits than those which engaged your attention and 
mine. They are good men (for there is a remnant still 
left) and, perhaps, as slow to cuiger, considering the provoca- 
tions during that period of four years, as any who ever 
lived. Let us humbly trust that they may soon be pacified. 
I have never been able to contemplate them with indiffer- 
ence. They always excite in me a disposition to pray, and 
very devoutly, for a visit from that evangel of civilization, 
Jesse Holmes, Perhaps the name of this benefactor may 
have escaped you. He should never be forgotten, for his 
mission in this world is most charitable. He is "the fool- 



D 

killer." Many times during the last seven years I have 
longed for his presence in the House of Representatives, 
hut so many opportunities have passed when his services 
would have heen invaluable to the Republic, that I am forced 
to believe that he has abandoned us to our fate. It may 
be that the amount of labor which would liave l)een 
required appalled him, but his absence has been a cruel 
blow to the best interests of the country. I think it would 
bo safe to say that, if he hud visited the halls of legisla- 
tion throughout the country generally, his victims would 
not have been found to any great extent among the soldier 
element. Their influence has almost invariably been ex- 
ercised in the direction of candor, conservatism, and peace. 
Who that witnessed them can ever forget the opening 
scenes of tbe war? They must remain forever stamped 
upon our memories — and only there, for artist's brush, nor 
author's per, can ever reproduce them. Every possible 
})hase of human character, every conceivable dramatic ele- 
ment, from the sublimest form of tragedy to the most 
ludicrous expression of the comic and farcical in human 
experience was daily witnessed. Tears and laughter went 
hand in hand, the twin genii of that hysteric period. I feel 
their influence even now in recalling the events of those 
early days, and am sure I could entertain you for hours 
by a recitation of such events within my own experience. 
You may have seen some approximation to them up here 
in the rural districts, but 3'ou can form no idea of w-hat 
transpired in the Southern States. They were and are sul 
(lencris. 

It was my fortune to witness the bombardment of Fort 
Sumter, in April, 18G1. Having seen the telegram from 

, General Beauregard to Jett'erson Davis, as it passed through 
my town, in which he notified him that at 4 o'clock on the 

, next morning (in case of a refusal by Major Anderson to 
surrender) he would open tire on the fort, I jumped upon 
the cars and started for Charleston. I shall never forget 

;^that, after a night of great anxiety, and when about twenty 



10 

miles from the city, jnst as the first grey streaks begun to 
lighten the eastern sky. and when the silent swamps were 
wakened only by the rimible of the train, there was dis- 
tinctl}' heard a single dull, heavy report like a clap of dis- 
tant thunder, and, immediately following it, at intervals of 
a minute or two, that peculiar measured throb of artillery 
which was then so new, but afterwards became so familiar 
to our eai's. The excitement on the train at once became 
intense, and the engineer, sympathizing with it, opened his 
valves and giving free rein to the iron horse, rushed us with 
tremendous speed into the historic city. Springing from 
the train, and dashing through the silent streets we ente-red 
our hotel, ascended to the roof, and there I experienced 
sensations which never before or since have been mine. As 
I stepped into the cupola and looked out upon that splendid 
harbor, there, in the centre of its gateway to the sea, half 
wrapped in the morning mist, lay Sumter, and, high above 
its parapets, fluttering in the morning breeze floated proudly 
and deflantly the stars and stripes. In a moment after- 
wards, just above it, there was a sudden red flash and a 
column of smoke, followed. by an explosion, and opposite, 
on James Island, a corresponding pufl' floated away on the 
breeze, and I realized with emotions indescribable that I 
was looking upon a civil war among my countrymen. 
Deeply impressed with the scene, I descended to the street 
on my way to that fine sea-wall called " the Battery," in 
oi'der to witness the progress of the boml)ardment, and was 
coniVonted by a person about 4 J feet high, with huge epau- 
lettes and bullet buttons liberally distrilnited over a home- 
spun uniform, who desired to know something, of my per- 
sonal history, and expi'essed a desperate determination to 
devour an unlimited number of abolitionists. I escaped 
this terrible cannibal, but am rejoiced to know that he 
served his country faithfully during the entire war as assist- 
ant cook to a Avagon train, and immediately upon its termi- 
nation joined the brothcM'hood of statesmen who panted for 
the blood of rebels. 



11 

It is a source of pride and comfort, however, to know 
tluit the class to which this inchvidual belonged was insig- 
nificant in numbers as he was in stature, and that the great 
mass of the people throughout the South, after hostilities 
began, were animated 1\y a single purpose, viz., to exliaust 
every resource at their command in the grand struggle 
which they felt to be impending, if it should be necessary 
to the attainment of success. That they would succeed 
was the universal conviction up to the 4th of July, 1863. 
Until that date I never saw a soldier who entertained the 
least doubt of it for a moment; but when the wires 
whispered simultaneously the disastrous news from Vicks- 
burg and Gettysburg on that fatal day, a change was per- 
ceptible in the serious faces which met one at every turn, 
and it was evident that, for the first time since the war 
began, an uneasy suspicion as to the final result was begin- 
ing to force itself, both upon the army and the people. 
There was no diminution of conrage, for frequently after 
that they fought magnificently, even more desperately, as 
yon well know, than ever ; but the buoyant spirit which a 
confident hope inspires, and which they had always previ- 
ously displayed, began gradually to sink. They never ceased 
to be good-natnred and jolly, as all armies are apt to be even 
to the last ; but from that 4th day of July the barometer com- 
menced to fall, and though subsequent victories would, for 
a moment, raise the mercury, the process steadily continued. 
And yet there probably never was an army which, while 
undergoing such hardships for years as they were subjected 
to, sul)mitted so uncomplainingly to their trials, and even 
turned their own sufferings and misfoi'tunes into ridicule as 
they did. Poor fellows, they did have a hard time — a 
much harder time than even yon Union soldiers, who knew 
more about them than anybody else, ever dreamed of. 
Contemplating their antecedents, did it never occur to you 
that their powers of endurance, their '• staying qualities," 
afforded an interesting sfndy ? Was not the popular idea 
this: that, while they had undoubted courao:;e and would 



u 

[irobablv make l)i'illiaiit dashes and fiij;lit iuipetnoitsly for a 
time, they would be unable to stand exposure, long marches, 
the erection of defensive works, severe pi'ivations. and the 
drudgery of hard campaigns? Was it not expected that 
excelhngin horsemanship and famihar with the use of small 
arms, their cavalry would he their most formidable arm ? 
If so, how must the actual experience of the war have sur- 
prised you. They were regarded as an indolent, passionate 
people, whose entliusiasm would soon burn itself out in the 
presence of continuous liard work. Ah, my friends, those 
who entertained this conception of them forgot from what 
stock they came, and made no allowance for the combined 
influences of caste and republican institutions in the forma- 
tion of national and individual character. The result of 
this coml^ination — ^so rare in human history — was a societ}' 
which, however regarded from a politico-economic or hu- 
manitarian [)oint of view, was productive of a type of men 
eminently (qualified to excel in war. The fact is that their 
capacity to endure was a matter of as mucli sui-prise to 
themselves almost, as to you and the rest of the world, and 
the realization of it enabled them to undergo all their 
subsequent trials. When I say this, it is not ray intention 
to create the impression that the people — who were the 
army — were unaccustomed to labor, for a very large major- 
ity of them were laboring men in one sphere or another. 
But most of them were laborers from choice and not from 
necessity, and were, therefore, ignorant of their own powers 
of endurance. A very considerable proportion of them, it 
is true, had never done much, it any, manual labor, and it 
is a curious fact that this verj^ element exhibited, perhaps ^ 
as much if not more of this capacity than any other in the 
army. 

It is a fact, too, of whicjh you may not be aware, although 
it has been stated publicly, that in many localities of the 
South the white men have produced more cotton and other 
products by their own labor than the colored men have, 
although the latter were largely in the majority. 



18 

AH the declamation about a handful of ambitious aris- 
tocrats leading the four millions of Southern people blindly 
into rebellion is the merest stutf and drivel. It is an insult 
to the intelligence and character of those people, and an 
utter perversion of the truth. Jjrains, morale, and wealth 
had the same influence there that they exercise elsewhere, 
and no more. If the masses of the people had not fidly 
sympathized with the movement attributed to the so-called 
leaders, it would have been a failure from the beginning. 
They understood thorougldy what they were aliout, they 
knew exactly what they were fighting for, and appreciated 
the disadvantages under which they labored and the odds 
against them as Avell as others did. They were not helpless 
dependents or untutored savages, but American freemen, 
who enjoyed the proud inheritance of constitutional liberty 
bequeathed tliem by their fatliers; and the best evidence 
that they did not consider themselves as misguided and be- 
trayed, may be found in the fact that instead of condemn- 
ing they have never ceased to do honor to the men who 
were most prominent in their cause. 

The marvel of our institutions and their chief glory is 
tlie principle of local self-government. To that funda- 
mental idea, which is so deep-rooted among us, is attril)u- 
table the amazing spectacle which was witnessed after the 
war, viz : a victorious army, after four years of civil con- 
flict, marching triumphantly to their homes and quietly dis- 
persing to their several avocations without the least at- 
tempt to interfere with the order of government, and a de- 
feated one going back to gathei- up the wretched remnants 
of their ruined industries, and to begin anew the rebuild- 
ing of their wasted land peacefully, and in perfect subor- 
dination to the civil law. There was no attempt, on the 
one hand, to make the military power predominant in the 
country, and not one instance, on the other, of resistance to 
the established authority. Each returned to its accustomed 
obedience to local government, and the wheels revolved as 
smoothlv as if there had never been a disturbance. It was 



14 

a grand illustration of the wisdom of our system, aud a 
triumphant vindication of the superhuman sagacity of those 
who constructed it. 

8. S. Prentiss once described this easy transition of tl)e 
soldier into the citizen in this beautiful simile : 

" Thus the dark thunder-clond at nature's summons mai'- 
shals its black battalion, and lowers along the horizon until 
at length, its mission spent, its dread artillery silenced, it 
melts away into the blue ether, and the next morning you 
may find it bespangling the verdant mead, or glittering in 
the dew-drops which the sad night hath wei)t." 

This spirit of obedience to the authority recognized as 
lawful, is not peculiar to any section of our country. In- 
deed it was what kept up both armies during the war ; and 
you were doubtless surprised to find among the Confeder- 
ates such a complete absence of insubordination. A more 
faithful, obedient, and patient army never went to hattle. 
Volumes could l)e filled with incidents in illustration of this, 
but I shall never forget one which came under my own 
observation. A member of my regiment came to me one 
day with an open letter in his hand, which he held out, 
while the tears slowly coursed down his cheeks; and, in a 
voice broken by deep emotion, said, " Colonel, for God's 
sake read this, and then help me to get a furlough." Taking 
the letter I found it to be about as follows: 

" My Dear Husband : I have been sick for a week, and 
now both the children are sick. 1 am alone and helpless. 
I have not got any money to buy medicine. The meat is 
all out, and I cooked the last dust of meal in the house to- 
day. 'The neighbors are all very poor, as you know, and 
can't help me. Oh! what shall I do? Please come home 
immediately, for I am afraid we will starve." 

The soldier looked eagerly at me while I read, and as the 
letter was finished repeated his petition for a furlough. The 
oi'ders from headquarters positively forbade, at the time, 
any application for a furlough under any circumstance's 
whatever. I so informed him, with tears which I could 
not restrain, l)ut I never wanted to advise a man to desert 



15 

until that moment, and was detci-mined, if he did, that he 
should never be punished for it. lie turned away slowly, 
and, without any other uttei'ance than one of sorrow, re- 
turned to his duty and faithfully performed it during the 
whole of that terrible campaign. Of course his was only 
one among many similar cases. 

In view of such inducements to desert it is infinitely to 
their credit as true soldiers, faithful to the trust reposed in 
them, that so few yielded to tlie tem[)tation. There is a story 
of one of these few which gives plausibility to that otlier 
traditional story of the man who still continues to vote for 
General Jackson. It is said that a year or two after the war 
was over a gaunt, loose-jointed fellow in a ragged grey suit 
was seen emerging from the ever-glades of Florida with a 
musket on his shoulder, who, in response to an inquiry as to 
where he was going, replied that he " reckoned be had laid 
out about long enough, and he was agwiue back to Lee's 
army." He must have been a relative of Bill Arp's grand- 
mother, who, about that time, said she " had hearn tell that 
Lee had whipped 'em agin," and thereupon expressed a firm 
conviction that " Confederate money would be good yit." 
The faith of women is wonderful. 

There was one peculiarity about the Confederate army of 
which mention is seldom made, but which was very signifi- 
cant. It was almost entirely without sutlers. Still it man- 
aged to get along, and even to win battles ! There was 
great anxiety among the boys, in the absence of any of 
their own, to get acquainted with some of yours, but it was 
very rare that they succeeded, for the gentlemen sought 
after were distant in their manners, and didn't seem to de- 
sire any new acquaintances. 

We didn't have any for very good reasons. In the first 
place there were hardly sutlers' stores enough in the coun- 
try to stock a liand-cart, and if there had been, the induce- 
ment to speculate was insufficient, for nobody hankered 
after Confederate money, which was the only currency ; 
and then, when pay-day came, which occured semi-occa- 



16 

sioiiallv, if a man waiired to buy anythiiig he I'ouiid tliat it 
would bankrupt his entire company to do it. You reniem- 
her how disgusted you used to be when you captured one 
of our commissary wagons. As to clotliing, tlie man who 
was caught witli a " biU'd " shirt on didn't fare as well as a 
" bloated bondholder" in a greenback campaign, or a door- 
keeper in the present Congress. Xevei'theless a sutler is 
frequently a benefactor, and I should l)e grossly hulking in 
gratitude if I failed to express, on behalf of the Confederate 
soldier, the pleasurable emotions which the I'ocoUection of 
those you liad always excites in liis heart. They are anions^ 
the sweetest memories of the war. 

While it may be difficult to determine in what engage- 
ment of the war the severest concentrated fire of small arms 
occurred, there can be no doubt as to the place where tlie 
power of heavy artillery was exhibited in its most tei-rific 
form. The bombardment of Fort Fisher was by far the most 
tVigiitful tliat has ever happened since the invention of gun- 
powder. All the testimony taken before the " Committee 
on the Conduct of the War " goes to establish this fact ; but, 
in addition to this, and to the universal admission on the 
Confederate side, there was still s<tronger evidence which 
was given. in my presence the day after the capture of the 
fort, by a competent and disinterested witness. The siege 
of Sabastoj)ol is admitted to have been the greatest bom- 
bardment in history up to tliat time. An English officer, 
however, who had run the l)lockade, and was present at 
Fort Fislior under an assimied name, was giving an ac- 
count of it after his escape, and, as ytreliminary to his re- 
marks, said that he had been at SeI)astopol, and thought 
there could never be anything like it again. "• But," said 
he, " Sebastopol was the merest cliild's play compared to 
what I have witnessed in the last two days. It was simply 
inconceivable and indescribable in its awful grandeur. I 
had no conception until now of what an artillery fire could 
be." You remember, perhaps, that there was no cessation 
!bi' more than fortv-eight hours, and there were, besides the 



17 

other projectiles, us many as twenty-five 11-inch shells in 
the air at tlie same instant throughout tlie whole time. Fifty 
thousand shells were expended hy the iieet. During the 
continuance of the lire it would have been impossil)le for any 
living thing to remain on the [)arapets which faced the sea for 
a mile, and when the assaulting colunm was formed there 
was, along that whole front, but a single gun remaining, 
and that could only be fired once before the fort was reached, 
and that long, desperate, hand-to-hand struggle began. A 
month before this the celebrated powder-ship explosion oc- 
curred, which was intended to blow down this solid earth- 
work, a mile in extent, with forty-feet traverses every few 
yards. The best incident of this huge joke was related to 
me by a distinguished officer of the navy several years ago. 
The night after the explosion of the pow^der-ship some of 
our pickets on the beach were captured and carried on board 
the admiral's ship. Among them was a very solemn-look- 
ing fellow, who sat silently and sadly chewing tobacco. As 
there was intense curiosity among the officers of the fleet 
to know the result of the remarkable experiment, one of 
them asked the solemn-looking •' lieb " if he was in the fort 
when the powder-ship exploded ; to which he replied in the 
affirmative — but without exhibiting the least interest in the 
matter ; whereupon the officers gathered around him and 
began to ask questions : 

"You say you were inside the fort?" 

" Yes ; I was thar." 

" What was the eftect of the explosion ?" 

" Mighty bad, sir— powerful bad." 

" Well, what vvas it? Did it kill any rebels or throw- 
down any of the works?" 

" No, sir; hit didn't do that." 

" Well, what did it do ? Speak out, d n your eyes." 

" Why, stranger, hit waked up pretty nigh every man in 
the fort !" 

It is amusing now to look back to 1861, and recall the 
organization and ec|uipment of some of the Confederate 



18 

troops ; and here let me say that they were not otttcered, as 
was commonly supposed, by the sons of rich men, the 
scions of what was called " the slave aristocracy/' In my 
own state, with the exception of the first ten regiments — 
which were officered by appointment of the governor — the 
company and field otficers were elected ; the former by the 
rank and file, and the latter by the company officers, with 
very few exceptions, and this, I believe, was the general 
rule in the service. There were, consequently, thousands 
of the best-educated and wealthiest young men of the 
Soutli in the ranks. There was one battalion of Georgians 
which I remember very well, and which was terribly cut to 
pieces in their first fight, which represented millions, and 
there was hardly a man in it over thirty years of age. I 
say it is amusing to recall the oi-ganization and equipment 
of some of them. The eagerness to get into the first 
engagement was universal, and it is an actual fact that one 
regiment which was organized, and hurried on to the first 
fight at Bull Run, was carried into battle by its brave 
colonel — who was killed— and charged a battery bjj the flank 
in column of fours. There happened to be an old sohher 
in it who usurped authority, and formed it in line before 
the guns were trained on the head of the column. One 
fellow was so anxious that when his comrades raised a 
shout, he indignantly exclaimed, ' If you don't stop your 
fuss, you'll scare 'em off and we won't get a shot." He got 
several after that. 

Tjns of metal were used in the manufacture uf hnge 
bowie-knives at the beginning of the war, and sometimes a 
fellow would be seen with two at his belt, accompanied, 
perhaps, by a little three-iuch pistol, which could not hurt 
anybody ten paces away. Double-barrel shot-guns were 
common. 

The ideas in regard to transportation in the beginning 
were sufficient to run a (quartermaster of the regular service 
wild. Not only officers, but many privates started out 
with trunks and servants. In the first cavalry regiments 



19 

that were tbrnied, all the privates famished their own 
horses, and this was the case to a large extent throughout 
the war. A large proportion of these regiments were 
reduced, and many entirely dismounted, hy the starvation 
of their chargers. At times, lono- foras^e became so scarce 
that the poor creatures would gnaw the bark from the trees 
and even chew at each others tails in a desperate etfort to 
relieve the cravings of tlicir fevered stomachs, while their 
riders were indulging in the luxur}' of fried or raw bacon, 
stale corn-bread, and brancli water. You may have con- 
sidered your hardships very severe, and sometimes, for a 
l)rief period, they were, doubtless, so. You thought it was 
very bad to be deprived of hot colfee, good meat, crackers 
and cheese, or the like ; but the Confederate, whether olK- 
cer or private soldier, vei-y rarely, even in camp, snuffed 
the aroma of that pleasant beverage or enjoyed other food 
than that which I have mentioned. The recollection of liis 
experience in this respect, and of the cheerful alacrity with 
which under such circumstances he performed his arduous 
duties, must ever command the respectful admiration of all 
generous minds. 

Of course, after tlie development of a settled purpose on 
the part of the Northern peo[)le to prosecute the war to a 
successful conclusion, as evidenced by a constant increase of 
their immense armies and an unlimited accumulation of all 
the armament and supplies on land and sea necessary to tlie 
accomplishment of their purpose, it became only a question 
of time how long the Confederates could hold out. They 
did hold out to the uttermost verge of absolute exhaustion. 

You all remember — and history will preserve the story 
long after we shall have passed away — what a mere handful 
of that splendid army that confronted you for four years on 
a liundred battle-fields was left to surrendei* at Appomattox. 

They w^ere ready even then, as you also know, to continue 
the fight — -hemmed in as they were hy overwhelming num- 
bers, and reduced, by the constant double duty to which 
they had long l)een subjected, to the pitiful condition of a 



20 

thin skii'inisli Hue. Bat humanity interposed, und the riiles 
which h;Ml rung responsive to your l>:ittle-ci\y so often, were 
hiid down. Strong men wept, bade each other farewell, and 
turned their sad faces toward then' Southern homes — not to 
be greeted joyfully, and to rest happily after their long trial 
and suifering, but to grapple with adv^ersit}^ in new forms, 
and to begin the slow- and painful task of restoring a wasted 
land to prosperity again. The process is going on, and 
with each returning spring the hills and valleys of the beauti- 
ful South throb more lustily beneath their green mantle 
with the pulses of returning life, and the glad earth sings 
more triumphantly her resurrection anthem. Chastened 
and purified by the fires through which he has passed, the- 
Confederate soldier will redeem the land he loved so well, 
and inspired by the wisdom born of hard experience, will 
so shape lier destiny that you and all his countrymen will 
ere long gladly acknowledge that " her ways are ways of 
pleasantness, and all her paths are peace." 

Citizen-soldiers of the Hepublic ! will you not aid him in 
his honest efforts to accomplish his high purpose ? Which 
is most worthy of your respect and confidence, the man 
wlio looked you squai'ely in the face and fought you until 
he was utterly exhausted in behalf of a cause which he sin- 
cerely believed to be just, or the hero who in those trying 
tiines flung no other l)anner to the lu'eeze save his coat-tails, 
and to-day marches beneath the standard of the "bloody 
shirt?" If there is anything which the American people 
of all sections and every shade of political opinion respect 
and admire more than any other thing in human character, 
it is pluck. Imagine the condition of the Confederate 
soldier to-day as a candidate for office, if his only enter- 
prise had been the accumulation of commissary stores for 
you during the war ! 

My friends, the vernal season is at hand, and the South, 
harmonizing Nature with political sentiment, anticipates 
you in putting forth the buds and blossoms of hope and con- 
fidence in the success of our free institutions. As the sun 



21 

in his glory reaches your more iioi'thern chnie, and warms 
your colder. Imt equally generous, soil into exuherant life, so 
may the quickening rays of kindly and fraternal feehng fall 
upon your hearts and evoke a larger growth of liberal senti- 
ment towards your Southern countrymen. Encourage it, and 
soon we will have a "glorious sunmier " of peace, concord, 
and national unity, for which are daily breathed the aspira- 
tions of all true [)atriots everywhere throughout our land. 

S(ildiers of the Union ! I would not only be guilty of a 
churlish neglect of duty and coui'tcsy, but would do violence 
to mv own feelings, if I permitte;! this opportunity to pass 
without attempting to \yA\ to the brave men who battled 
for the supremacy of the national authority, the tril)ute of 
i-espect and admiration which the Confederate soldier en- 
tertains toward theni. He knows what motives influenced 
them. He fully appreciates the [»atriotic spirit which inspired 
them. He, better than all others, can sympathize with 
them in all tlie memoi-ies which the war recalls. He knows 
more fully than all others how splendidly they fought, how 
patiently they suffered, and how completely they triumphed. 
Conscious of his own prowess, he willingly acknowledges 
theirs, and will never consent to see them deprived of 
a single laurel or denied a full recognition of their services. 
He will vote, as he has done, to pay the living and the 
widows and orphans of the dead the last farthing which 
may be justly claimed in their behalf. He will seek no ex- 
emption from this charge, and will ask no participation in 
its benefits. Here and there, perhaps, may be found an in- 
dividual (although I have never seen or known of one) 
who indulges, though feebly, the hope that at some time, 
in some way, he may receive compensation for liis losses 
during the war; but such a person is only a living illustra- 
tion of the ti'uth that no limit can be set to the bounds of 
tlie human imagination, and that to the eye of faith noth- 
ing is impossible. It would be a liberal estimate to fix the 
number of such persons at one in a hundred thousand of 
the Southern people. No shifting of policy, and no change 



22 

of admiinstratioii, can over produce a formidable increase 
ill their number — the prophetic utterances of over-sensitive 
natures to the contrary notwithstandins;. To suppose otli- 
erwise is to in(hilge a morbid fancy. 

Xo; the maimed Confederate soldier will cheerfully con- 
tribute to the pension fund which gives food and raiment 
to the maimed Union soldier or his family, and will never 
ask to participate witli tlicm thei'oin. ITo knows that com- 
mon sense forbids tlie consideration of such a proposition, 
and, therefore, it has never occupied his attention for a mo- 
ment. The restoration of his rights as an American citizen 
^and chief among them the right of local self-government 
which he now enjoys — tills the measure of his expectations, 
if not of his desires; and his only ambition now is to con- 
tinue in their enjoyment, and to bring back from its long 
exile the banished spirit of material progress and enthrone 
it permanently in his country. His destiny, under God, is 
in his own hands, and it is safe. Henceforward he will 
stand by your side in every etfbrt to advance the honor and 
welfare, to erect again the prostrate industries and restore 
the commercial [>ower. of the Great Republic. What other 
aspiration can he have? What possible inducement could 
be otlered to him to act otherwise? He is your fellow-citi- 
zen, living in the enjoyment of the same I'ights and privi- 
leges accorded to every inhal)itant of this free land, and 
resting secure beneath the protecting folds of that glorious 
standard whose crimson stripes were painted with the life- 
blood of his fathers and yours ; and whenever in the future 
it shall be unfurled in war the Confederate soldier will be 
found beneath it, ready to give his life in its defence. If 
such occasion should ever occur T think the boys in blue 
would hardly object to touch elbows with him, and would 
rather enjoy the " old rebel yell " he would raise. N'o one 
desires to see war who has ever had the experience of it. 
but if it should come the spectacle of a solid column com- 
posed ofalternate regiments of ex-Union and ex-Confederate 
poldiers would be a goodly sight to see. The thought of 



23 

snch a spectacle is inspiring and quickens the pulse. The 
realization of it would "provoke the silent dust " of our 
dead comrades, and would hring upon the winds of heaven 
the soft music of their common benediction. 

And now to their honored shades let our parting thoughts 
be addressed. Another year has passed. Once more Spring- 
mantles field and forest with her emerald robe, and again 
the sweet May " wakes her harp of pines." Soon the women 
of the land will gathei" in a hundred of the silent cities of 
the dead to deck with garlands tlie gateways through which 
their heroes marched to glory. When these ceremonies 
are performed and tender memories of tlie l)y-gono time 
have softened their hearts and moistened their eyes, let 
them remember, too, that our brothers whose graves they 
decorate are at peace forever. A grateful nation has gath- 
ered the bones of the Union dead in various parts of the 
country and beautified their last resting place. There are 
but 'few Confederate cemeteries, and these few are gener- 
ally unadorned. 

Scattered throughout the land, from the heights of Get- 
tysl)urg to the valleys of Texas, lie the remains of thousands 
of our countrymen of each army whose bones no loving 
hands have gathered, whose requiem remains unsung save 
by the night winds, and above whose silent sepulchres no 
other flowers bloom than those with which generous nature 
decks neglected graves. 

" By the flow of the iiihind river, 
Whence the fleets of iron have fled, 
Where the blades of the grave-grass quiver 
Asleep on the ranks of the dead : — 

Under the sod and the dew, 

Waiting the j udgnient day ; 

Under the one tlie Blue 

Under the other the Gray." 

May we, their surviving countrymen, ennobled by their 
example, inspired by the memory of their heroism, and 
chastened by a common affliction, pursue 

" The plans of fair delightful peace, 
Unwar]ied l>y jjarty rage, to live like brothers." 




^ 



The Confederate Soldier. 




AN ADDRESS 

DELIVERED AT THE WRITTEN REQUEST OF 

5,000 EX-UNION SOLDIERS, 

AT 

STEINWAY HALL, NEW YORK CITY, 
Friday Evening, May 3d, 1878, 

FOR THE 

Benefit of the 47th N. Y. Veteran Volunteers, 

(Mii.ES O'Reilly's Regiment,) 

BY 

HON. ALFRED M. WADDELL, M. C, 

OF NORTH CAROLINA. 




WASHINGTON : . 

JOSEPH L. PEARSON, PRINTER, 

Comer of 9tb and D streets. @ I ' 

1878. 




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